Red Alert Online by Tencent Seems To Infringe C...

Tencent Games, the gaming division of Chinese investment giant Tencent, recently had announcedRed Alert Online, a mobile game set in the Command & Conquer Red Alert universe exclusively for gamers in China.

To begin with, the game's announcement was not backed by any press release or statement on the part of Electronic Arts (EA) in any first or third-party website. This would be strange considering that EA would logically want to make an accompanying statement to back the release of such a game, despite it being for mobile, because:

1.) It concerns the C&C IP which has lay dormant for many years now2.) The Chinese gaming market is extremely huge and this would be a chance to tap onto it

Thus there were doubts regarding how involved EA was with the development of the game and speculation is rife that EA may not even be legitimately or formally endorsing Red Alert Online.

Now to add on to the game's woes, an investigation article published by CNCNZ reveals to us that Aiyou Interactive Entertainment, the developers behind the game, have possibly committed multiple counts of copyright infringement. Multiple assets from StarCraft II and other IPs, including possibly an asset from Mental Omega, the much popular community mod for Yuri's Revenge are among those listed as having been used in Red Alert Online.

Do check out the link above at CNCNZ.com for the full investigation piece and to find out more regarding the depth of copyright infringement that seems to have transpired during the development of Red Alert Online.

It remains to be seen whether Activision Blizzard or any of the other copyright holders will follow-up to this case of IP infringement and take action. We also await any official word from EA regarding their level of involvement in the development of this game and whether they had any knowledge of the use of the assets of other companies.